{"id":2844,"date":"2007-07-31T00:30:12","date_gmt":"2007-07-31T05:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/jesuscreed\/2007\/07\/31\/finding-faithlosing-faith-1\/"},"modified":"2007-07-31T00:30:12","modified_gmt":"2007-07-31T05:30:12","slug":"finding-faithlosing-faith-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2007\/07\/31\/finding-faithlosing-faith-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding Faith\/Losing Faith 1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I let the cat out of the bag Saturday in the Weekly Meanderings and the nice conversation that followed from it. I linked to the story of the reporter named Lobdell who, after a conversion to the faith and after covering the religion scene for a good long while, has walked away from his Christian faith. I mentioned then that I was doing some research on conversion theory and apostasy, so here\u2019s the first in a series this month on loss of faith. My question will come up later in this post.
\nIn 2002 \u201cwe\u201d \u2014 not Tony and I \u2014 published a book on conversion theory and how that theory shows up in the Gospel stories of conversion. The book is called Turning to Jesus<\/a>. The basic thesis is this: all converts go through a similar process. It begins in one\u2019s context, is prompted by a crisis, leads to a quest for a resolution, finds itself in an interaction and encounter with the advocates (Bible, charismatic evangelist, etc), leads to a commitment and to consequences. Conversions, of course, vary \u2014 some have an intense crisis while some simply shuffle through a series of \u201cgentle nods of the soul.\u201d
\nIn that book, which is rooted in Lewis Rambo\u2019s monumental Understanding Conversion<\/a><\/em>, I stated that all conversions involve apostasy \u2014 and saying so is not so much a moral judgment or a theological position as a social description. To enter one faith system, one leaves another. (Children emerging into faith is a little different, but that is not the point here.)
\nI am working now on the last chapter in a book for Baylor University Press tentatively called Finding Faith\/Losing Faith: Stories of Conversion and Apostasy<\/em>. \u201cWe\u2019ve\u201d done one on why evangelicals become Roman Catholic, one on why Jews become messianic, one on why Catholics become evangelicals and the study I am presently doing is on why people abandon the Christian faith.
\nToday\u2019s post is a brief one but I\u2019ll do some more this month. I begin with the story of Charles Templeton, told in his Dawkins-like diatribe Farewell to God<\/em>. Famously, Templeton was a close Canadian associate of Billy Graham and a powerful evangelist with Youth for Christ and church-building pastor in Toronto. Everyone knew of his legendary preaching abilities and the impact he was having in evangelism and preaching. In the 1950s, just before Billy\u2019s famous LA Crusade, Templeton revealed to Billy Graham that he was struggling with his understanding of Scripture, inspiration, and overall biblical commitment. He said he and Billy were on two different paths.
\nWell, I can\u2019t tell the whole story here. What I see in Templeton\u2019s decision to abandon the faith is the clash of scientific data with the biblical record \u2014 in other words, Templeton had an intellectual crisis from the conflict of scientific facts with the biblical worldview. Templeton left his church, went to Princeton Theological Seminary, then was employed as a mainline evangelist but within a few years, because he could not with integrity continue to preach what he was no longer sure of, left preaching altogether.
\nFor Templeton it was all about intellectual freedom. It was a hard difficult decision for Templeton, but here are his words: \u201cThe oft-postponed decision irrevocably made, there came a soaring sense of freedom, not least, intellectual freedom\u2026. My mind could freely quest where it would. I could examine any question without a predisposition to harmonize it with the body of Christian belief. I felt loosed. Set free!\u201d (222).
\n\u201cIn the end, one must follow the truth as one perceives it. Not to do so is to live a lie\u201d (224).
\nWhile one cannot reduce Templeton\u2019s loss of faith to his problems with Genesis or the Bible, these issues for the heart of his crisis. What do you think the Church can do more to encourage genuine research on these issues and, what is far more important, bring such research into the local church? What does your local church do? What about your own journey?
\nThis book is a record of his response, but it comes off as a lengthy diatribe against the Genesis accounts, the entire presentation of God in the Bible, the improbability of miracles, the moral hypocrisy of the Church in history, the strange stories of some pastors, how the Bible and Church understand women, and the Christian theory of good and evil. It isn\u2019t simply the rant of a disaffected Christian but it does turn into this at times. Most of his argument is by assertion and logic.
\nTempleton, who died in 2001 after a lengthy, successful career as a newspaper, magazine and TV editor and leader, was an agnostic \u2014 not a theist (he doesn\u2019t think one can believe in a personal God), not an atheist (the evidence is the same against God as for God), but an agnostic (one can\u2019t know such things).<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I let the cat out of the bag Saturday in the Weekly Meanderings and the nice conversation that followed from it. I linked to the story of the reporter named Lobdell who, after a conversion to the faith and after covering the religion scene for a good long while, has walked away from his Christian […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[476,1379],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-conversion"],"yoast_head":"\nFinding Faith\/Losing Faith 1<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I let the cat out of the bag Saturday in the Weekly Meanderings and the nice conversation that followed from it. I linked to the story of the reporter\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2007\/07\/31\/finding-faithlosing-faith-1\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Finding Faith\/Losing Faith 1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I let the cat out of the bag Saturday in the Weekly Meanderings and the nice conversation that followed from it. I linked to the story of the reporter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2007\/07\/31\/finding-faithlosing-faith-1\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-07-31T05:30:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2007\/07\/31\/finding-faithlosing-faith-1\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2007\/07\/31\/finding-faithlosing-faith-1\/\",\"name\":\"Finding Faith\/Losing Faith 1\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2007-07-31T05:30:12+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2007-07-31T05:30:12+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\"},\"description\":\"I let the cat out of the bag Saturday in the Weekly Meanderings and the nice conversation that followed from it. I linked to the story of the reporter\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2007\/07\/31\/finding-faithlosing-faith-1\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2007\/07\/31\/finding-faithlosing-faith-1\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2007\/07\/31\/finding-faithlosing-faith-1\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Finding Faith\/Losing Faith 1\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\",\"name\":\"Jesus Creed\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\",\"name\":\"Scot McKnight\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. McKnight, author of more than fifty books, is the Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary in Lombard, IL.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/author\/scotmcknight\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Finding Faith\/Losing Faith 1","description":"I let the cat out of the bag Saturday in the Weekly Meanderings and the nice conversation that followed from it. I linked to the story of the reporter","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2007\/07\/31\/finding-faithlosing-faith-1\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Finding Faith\/Losing Faith 1","og_description":"I let the cat out of the bag Saturday in the Weekly Meanderings and the nice conversation that followed from it. I linked to the story of the reporter","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2007\/07\/31\/finding-faithlosing-faith-1\/","og_site_name":"Jesus Creed","article_published_time":"2007-07-31T05:30:12+00:00","author":"Scot McKnight","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Scot McKnight","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2007\/07\/31\/finding-faithlosing-faith-1\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2007\/07\/31\/finding-faithlosing-faith-1\/","name":"Finding Faith\/Losing Faith 1","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website"},"datePublished":"2007-07-31T05:30:12+00:00","dateModified":"2007-07-31T05:30:12+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252"},"description":"I let the cat out of the bag Saturday in the Weekly Meanderings and the nice conversation that followed from it. I linked to the story of the reporter","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2007\/07\/31\/finding-faithlosing-faith-1\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2007\/07\/31\/finding-faithlosing-faith-1\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2007\/07\/31\/finding-faithlosing-faith-1\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Finding Faith\/Losing Faith 1"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/","name":"Jesus Creed","description":"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252","name":"Scot McKnight","description":"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. McKnight, author of more than fifty books, is the Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary in Lombard, IL.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/author\/scotmcknight\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/197"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2844\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}